What to Expect from Affliction Films

2009/2010 was an off year for me, I didn't put out to much material edit wise. It wasn't so much lack of material but perhaps lack of inspiration or good old editor's block. Summer 2011 is shaping up to be incredible! I have quite a few projects happening. I've also decided due to the amount views on my original Brickers channel. I will migrate videos from the Affliction Films channel over there and I will rename the page.

This year I'll be taking on a huge skateboarding project a full length video of the local colour. It's going to be pretty cool because there will be a lot of collaboration involved with a younger filming talent whom I had the pleasure of lighting the fire that led him toward filming. Skateboard films at full length usually run between 10-30 minutes. I'm not sure what I'll be calling this probably something collaborated between everyone involved.

That's whats Up

Another thing I'm excited to announce is there will be a brand new Buddy 1 Leg instalment in the Buddy 1 Leg Series. It will be the sixth full edit in the series.  It's crazy when I look back on the whole saga, this series is truly a continental project worked on in two countries on opposite coasts, The genuine North American Article. It's crazier despite a ridiculous age gap and I being the younger of us we've gotten to watch each other grow athletically, personally. I've watched this guy take on some of his own editing and even grow a quite a bit in that field. He's was around 4 name changes before Affliction Films and even the the day I considered hanging the towel and leaving the editing world.  He's also one of the few people who favoured my childhood nickname Dillinger and stuck to calling me Dill. So these edits are pretty big on all fronts for me.

If I have time this summer, I'll be doing something I haven't done in a long time. A personal demo reel. A video where I've become both filmer, subject, producer and editor. Although it may turn into a Fall Project, still have a bit more training I'd like to garner beforehand. I want nothing but my A-Game going into this and at the moment it's very C-game. Between getting over various injuries from the year, I'm rusty.

I can't wait to show you guys the finished products.
-Hutch-

Who's peeping in my bedroom?

When your 22 and you still live with your parents because it's economically sound for you. Your bedroom becomes a lot more than a vessel for slumber, relaxation and any other extra activities one might use a bed for. It's literally work/study space, sleeping space, Sports Storage/Locker Room, Entertainment Center and when nights are rough the dinner table. I'm one of those people so my room has a lot of stuff in it. At roughly 10X10 ft it's quite honestly a box and I'm not sure how the hell I fit all of my stuff in it. Most of which probably is bad taste but I'm sure it'd look so much better spread out in an apartment when the time comes. Because I film a lot of videos and take a lot of pictures in my room a lot of people ask me about certain things, repeatedly so I thought I blog some of them.

The Munchkin Shelf

I get asked about this, Let's just say area way to much and a lot of different questions to.

Whats wrong with your shelves?
They were my chester drawers when I was wee from the toddler days. When I was about 11 my clothes wouldn't fit the drawers. So I kept the carcass and cut a piece of spare wood from some other old furniture in the garage to fit it. I was 11 of course it looks weird.

Whats with all the crap?
I'd like to consider it an upper class answer to a kitchen rummage drawer. I have a cord or adapter for just about anything in one of the boxes,  Another box has collectables I don't display, another files my tax stubs, pay stubs anything accounting related. I have my binders, drawing books, pencil crayons, markers, hockey cards and baseball cards in a recipe box and  loose change in the other, a lock box with my knives, guitar tuner, video games for sega, my belt buckles, wood glue, star trek audiobook, two bibles, my high school diploma, track & field ribbons. If you can't find something you need in their than it's somewhere else in the room. The RC cars I used to collect the small flat one is about 20 years old. Also the snowboard boots have no where to go no room under the bed or in the closet. They'll be thrown away if they are in the family shoe closet or basement. So they've become holders for my juggling clubs and my juggling balls.

Stickered to Death

My cub-bard is another thing I get asked about especially over it's adornment.  This outside of my bed is the only piece of furniture I own that didn't belong to sibling first or my grandmother. I think they are from Wal-Mart and I got them when I was 13 and they are probably my favourite piece of furniture in my room.
The stickers didn't show up until I was about 17 and it started with the the diagonal bumper stickers  in Orange, Red and Blue and they say
Red: " It's Ok Not To Drink"
Blue: " It's Ok Not To Do Drugs"
Orange: " It's Ok Not To Smoke"
They were three stickers that spoke to me a lot. There was always this constant pressure in high school to Smoke, Drink and Do Drugs. If you didn't do them you were banished plain and simple. I didn't touch a drink until I was 19 ( Legal in My Province). Waiting until I was legal I also learned how to have a good time without relying on booze like sort of social lube to make it easier.
The sticker collection grew with new experiences or hold some meaning to me.

I get asked about this poster quite a bit from people who see it. Given the fact I'm a sworn Baltimore Orioles fan and my favourite all-time player is Cal Ripken Jr. The Jay's poster throws people off. When I first started really getting in to baseball around four a friend of my dad's got an Alomar poster for him to give to me.  It's from 1992 the year the Toronto Blue Jay's took the world series. It's still in it's plastic and hopefully when I move back over into the bigger room and re-paint it I'll be able to frame it and hang it.  Right now it's just standing with a few of my ball baseball trophies and a ball that I get to be all nostalgic about.

Normally I make the bed! I promise your not drunk, dead or high your actually seeing stars and clouds. Oh and did I mention my bed room doubles as sports storage thats only have the hockey sticks.

Hey...your a FAG.

I know it's a repulsive title but it fits the theme. I've decided through out my blog to feature posts that deal with bullying and it's various off shoots. Despite being well known as some what of a smart ass and at times even a royal bastard; I'm also an individual with some depths to my being. I have no rhythm or Rhyme to what order these will come in.  

Considering the fact that I hang ten with some of the best of the gays with each variety of plumbing. Some of my best friends come in the gay variety, heck I'm the wee Canadian brother of gay decorators hopefully a bit of their sense of interior feng shui rubs off on me in time for my room re-model, just saying.  Yes, Yes I know I've got the whole rainbow of friends going on, keeps life colourful.

I was browsing through the comments on my personal youtube channel. Designed for my use and not mass appeal and stunt reels, I noticed one common trend every insult involved some form of a gay reference.
Just to give a few of the things commented on my videos.
"wat a fag hahahah it's "pathetic" he has a buz lightyear toy on his shelf" - posted on a video about iCon2 headphones

" You sound kind of like a Fluffee Talks" - Posted on a headphones video


" You are so Fucking Homosexual" - Posted on my main channel page.

Besides questioning the creativity of the general population and their ability to deliver a real insult without falling on the remedial insult of fag. This really was the catalyst for my first post in this blog series and it also helps that I have so many great, wonderful, dorky, creative and amazing gays in my corner who I wouldn't trade for all the apple pie in the world, well I might trade some if you throw in ice cream to....ok I really wouldn't get rid of any.

These half assed insults however got me thinking about gay stereotypes, there often used to bully gays and the rest of the general population despite being positively stupid.

Butch Lesbians are good with tools, dumb stereotype I know quite a few butchity butch butches that don't know philips from robinson.

Gay Guys have great fashion, Hello visit your gay villiage  you will see that couple holding hands wearing black pants, white socks and brown leather thonged flip flops and some equally hideous shirt.

Gay Men are friend's with women other people can't stand, How many straight men are married to women nobody likes?

All lesbians are cat people, I can find a handfull who wouldn't be caught dead owning a feline.

See where I'm going with this? Whats the point of bullying people gay, straight, stuck in the middle or otherwise over a set of preconceived stereotypes of gayness that essentially are completely stupid. Treating them like they are some required checklist people use to figure out their orientation.

Last time I checked the only real requirement for being gay was natural physical attraction to your own gender and a desire to love them on a intimate, physical, emotional level that is only reserved for the one you marry and have your happily ever after white picket fence or modern condo with a bubble chair with not that a set of gays need to have modern condos, bubble chairs or a white picket fence.

There is no point to the stereotype
How many straight guys suck with tools, How many gay ones know how to use a drill?
How many straight women have terrible hair, How many butch lesbians have well fluffed, shiny hair?
If we all had to sit their and check boxes of gay stereotypes for our genders....frankly we'd all be a gay.

Long Story Short if your to insult somebody make sure it's a deserved insult and do better than " Your a Fag"  it's a pointless insult because beyond same gendered attraction there is nothing to correlate.

Come to thing of it how come they call a Heterosexual straight and a homosexual gay? somebody wanna answer that one for me?

Springs in the Air

I'm a winter guy, I love the snow and often even the cold that comes with it but the spring and summer are nice as well. I figure with spring 2011 I'm going to start including more blog posts about whats going on with me and whats around and even my photos. I do enjoy photography sshhh don't tell anyone. I'm a closet photographer, just kidding I'm out and about and proud of that one.

I don't know what kind of flowers they are, they are just some hanging basket plants in the yard.

I've always loved a good BBQ and last year dad and mom by proxy caved and invest in a new one. The old one was 30 something odd years old and only burning at quarter strength took years to cook a wiener that microwave in ten seconds. I spend a lot of time cooking outside.....real men don't over clean their BBQs the rack/ grill is pristine the rest is much like the tool shed looks used. The guarding on the deck was last years summer project.

With this new warmer weather I got fed up with waiting. My mom takes forever to set her garden just so and I often end up eating my out door dinners on with my ass on the steps for the first few months. So this is what I worked on today.  I took some of the old blue Muskoka chairs out of the shed and washed the bird crap off them from two summers ago. Normally some boxy white chairs are chucked their for the odd church BBQ. Then left the  old wee park bench that frankly was kind of brown from a winter out side and scrubbed that down and then I threw some kind of plant i found on the deck which my mother hasn't set yet. So that'll end up moved but for now...thats all be between the bird bath and the trees. LOL and yes I realize that one chair is right under the branch sort of and the there is a bird feeder a few feet away. I did that intentionally so I can sit and watch the birds and maybe get some nice pictures.

I guess that sums up my outside time today. I was going to mow the lawn but the cables gone and needs fixing oh well another day. It is nice to have a day full of the work I actually want to do.